You’ve probably seen videos on YouTube from metal detectorists who consistently make legendary finds at the beach. These people seem to do extremely well on an almost daily basis pulling Gold and Silver out of the sand! The first thing you’ll notice about these guys is that all of their beach-detecting spots have something in common (other than being at the beach). Almost all of the greatest beach detecting finds are made in salty wet sand or in the salt water itself and it’s not a coincidence! Because the beach sand is constantly shifting and turning we find that the...
It might seem trivial...“Any old Garden Trowel will do!” I hear someone in the back yell. Technically this is true, if you're on a tight budget, just getting started or maybe you don’t want to go all in on the bells and whistles since you aren’t sure if you’ll really like detecting yet.(Spoiler Alert: We’re confident you will!). There’s nothing wrong with being resourceful and using what you can pull together at home (images of a modified garden trowel with serrated edging come to mind), however there are quite a number of benefits to taking it to the next level with some upgraded and purpose built tools which we’ll get into below.
We have been beach detecting for quite a while now and have worked out a few nuggets of information along the way that can help you. Whether you're metal detecting for the fun of it, the mental relaxation, or keenly searching for gold jewellery or rings... these tips just might help you walk away with a bigger smile (and a fuller treasure pouch) from your future detecting sessions.
So the question is, should we dig it all at the beach? Counterintuitively the answer is NO, and I’ll explain why… For example, there are some situations where there are SO many targets that ignoring certain tones will leave you more time to dig tones with a higher chance of being something valuable.
In this article, we explore the topic of how to best cover ground when metal detecting at the beach... gridding vs. randomly swinging! What is Gridding and when should I utilise it? Gridding is when the operator of a metal detector scans an area in a back and forth pattern (in a grid formation) with the intent of detecting an area thoroughly and leaving minimal targets behind. The alternative to gridding is what I call “scouting” which...
